Location: Exshaw

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Holy Empire of Choco is a huge, safe nation, remarkable for its anti-smoking policies. Its compassionate, cynical population of 462 million are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Defence, Law & Order, and Education. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Holy Chocobo City. The average income tax rate is 68%, and even higher for the wealthy. A healthy private sector is dominated by the Tourism industry.

Government officials have to mortgage their homes to make ends meet, citizens applying for their first jobs face fierce competition from the homeless, drug distribution is tightly controlled by the government, and Members of Parliament operate under a PAYE scheme. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Choco's national animal is the Chocobo, and its currency is the Gil.

Choco is ranked 276th in Exshaw and 52,797th in the world for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 5 on the Gilded Widget Scale.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and